I actually got this idea from misreading another thread title, in where I thought they wanted to hear about MY new job.
So, I have been at my new job for 6 days (70 hours) plus one day of orientation. I am a new Chef de Cusine.
In my orientation, they informed me that I would be in training for TWELVE weeks. I about had a freakin heart attack when they told me this. My first day, 10 hours in dishpit. Same for the second. So I spent 20 hours in the damn dish pit. The things that were positive about this experience were that I a) learned where every single dish, pot, pan, utensil goes, and can find everything, and b) I can take apart and put back together our dish machine.
I learned all of this in probably 4 hours total, so I spent an extra 16 hours feeling like a lame-o because my line cooks have ZERO knife skills, and food waste in this place is horrid (they are running at a 36% food cost, another thing that almost gave me a heart attack).
The next 50 hours were spent in a position called "Prep 2". This position should really be called "Prep Lite" since they do things like, thaw and bag shrimp, pull meats and other things to thaw, and very, very basic prep work.
These first few days have been somewhat soul crushing. There is so much going wrong, and I am literally NOT allowed to do much of anything about it. I even had a very bad start with the GM, who basically said he wouldn't call me Chef because he's 'not used to having a chef there'. I thought he was a total jerk about it. We've since smoothed over some of our differences, and seem to be getting along well.
There are positives to this. I am getting to know my crew, and enjoy working with almost all of them. No one is placing blame on me yet, which is good because a LOT of stupid stuff is going on (and I am eager to fix it).
So everyone, tell me about YOUR new jobs!
